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31 October, 2015

I always enjoy it when White opens with 1.d4.Replying e6 and seeing 2.e5 appear on the board, allows me to steer straight to the French Defence, and find out if White really intended this or not.Here's what I saw today....

3. Qg4 ?!

Never seen that so early in a French ( and my database agrees : only two games found, both played in Junior competitions ).I know why it is played at later times ( often after Bb4+ ) to force the weakening g6 or the return of the Bishop to f8, with the loss of a tempo, but on move 3, it just doesn't work. It probably means that White does not know the French Defence, and this was proved true in a short space of time.Here is the critical position after Black has developed and won material, by chasing the Queen. Black to finish White with a killer blow, and not difficult to find.

25 October, 2015

Below, the top 10 T66 Openings so far ( Playoffs are ongoing) ...4 e4 openings, 4 with d4, and 2 others ( Réti/English).Hardly much of a change in major openings played, nor on the split between King- and Queen-pawn, with 1.e4 grabbing 53% of the games.Oddest opening was 1.a3, which lost, although the opening can hardly be blamed for the tactical oversights in the game.One Falkbeer Counter-Gambit, and also nice to see 1.Nc3 appearing twice, once transposing to a Philidor and the other remaining independent. Dirk van Geet would be pleased to see it still in action !Seven games less than 10 moves, but no traps, just over-looked tactics at fault.

T66 Top 10 Played Openings

B20-B99

Sicilian

116 (15.6%)

C00-C19

French Defence

64 (8.6%)

D00-D05

Queen's Pawn ( General )

54 (7.3%)

A10-A39

English

48 (6.5%)

D30-D69

Queen's Gambit Declined

44 ( 6.0 % )

B10-B19

Caro-Kann

39 (5.3 % )

C60-C99

Spanish Game ( Ruy Lopez)

36 (4.9 %)

A45-A50

Indian & Torre Attack

32 (4.3 %)

A04-A09

Reti

30 ( 4.0 % )

E60-E99

King's Indian

28 ( 3.77 % )

All games were re-indexed by ECO code using Chess Assistant 11,. The Opening classification ranges ( ie grouping ECO codes), I based on those from Chessville (many thanks, although it seems to have disappeared :(

09 October, 2015

A recurring theme...blitz, what is is good for...The answer not being 'absolutely nothing, say it again ! ''It's fine for a bit of relaxation, maybe for trialling and gaining some experience in a new opening, but the most frustrating part is going over the games afterwards and finding that you missed a great combination or sacrifice, which you may well not have missed in a 'proper game' with more time.Here's an example.

Black to Play

I know why I missed it ( I'm Black, by the way ) as I had been focusing on defence around the king. threats down the h-file, threats of knight and Queen versus h7, etc, plus the fact that it was 'second time around', since it had been on show a couple of moves before.But I did, I missed a lovely riposte that would have switched Black to attack.Nevertheless, I managed a draw,which was a satisfying result for me.Any ideas ?Solution [ Nxd4 ! ]